The State of the Nation's Housing Report: What Oregon Can Learn

oin City Club for a conversation with Dr. Christopher Herbert, Managing Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, about the recently published State of the Nation's Housing Report. Elisa Harrigan, Affordable Housing Initiative Program Officer at Meyer Memorial Trust will moderate. 

Speaker: 
Christopher Herbert is Managing Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Dr. Herbert has extensive experience conducting research related to housing policy and urban development, both in the U.S. and abroad. A key focus of his research has been on the financial and demographic dimensions of homeownership, and the implications for homeownership policy of the recession, housing bust, and foreclosure crisis. Dr. Herbert led the team responsible for producing the Center’s annual State of the Nation’s Housing and its biennial America’s Rental Housing reports, essential resources for both public and private decision makers in the housing industry.

Dr. Herbert was named managing director of the Joint Center in 2015, and oversees the Center’s diverse sponsored research programs, its local and national conferences and symposia, as well as its student fellowship programs, designed to help train and inspire the next generation of housing leaders. He is also a Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in the Department of Urban Planning and Design. He holds a PhD and Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, and a BA in History from Dartmouth College.

Moderator: 
Elisa Harrigan is incredibly passionate about building a strong and equitable affordable housing industry that is accessible to all Oregonians. At Meyer Memorial Trust, Elisa uses her skills as a community organizer, local/state/federal policy analyst and an activist for anti-poverty and rental housing issues to advance the goals of the Affordable Housing Initiative, Housing Portfolio and organization equity vision.

Prior to joining Meyer, Elisa was the executive director of the Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT), Oregon’s only grassroots tenant-led organization. Elisa is a member of the Class V - Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Latino Leadership Program. Elisa was named “Best Low Income Tenant Advocate” by the Willamette Week in 2009. Elisa has volunteered for several years for the MRG Foundation.